Portsmouth Square: SF Gov Homework #3
City Spotlight Research
Name: Portsmouth Square
Location: Chinatown
Current image(s):
Historical image(s):
Why it’s interesting/why you like it:
When I first came here, I thought it was just a normal park where people hung out and ate lunch with their friends. But it’s actually one of the most important areas in San Francisco history. Our local author Gary Kamiya calls this San Francisco’s historic ground zero. It’s also where all Chinatown guides start their tour.
Namesake/History:
Portsmouth Square has its claim to many oldest. It is the oldest park in San Francisco and was established before San Francisco was even San Francisco during the Mexican period of California. It was original the Plaza de Yerba Buena or La Plaza.
The area is the first American flag was raised declaring this a part of the United States. The oldest street is Grant Ave (originally Calle de la Fundación and later Dupont St.) runs right by it. The first public school in California was here. The city’s first newspaper was published here. This is where the Gold Rush actually started when Sam Brannan, California’s first millionaire, waved around a bottle with gold flakes and shouted “Gold! Gold! Gold from the American River!”
But what about today? Look around and you’ll see people playing cards, Chinese chess, exercising by doing tai chi. Chinatown is an extremely densely populated area, with most of the housing being SROs (single-room occupancy), rooms with no bathroom or kitchen that are around 70 to 100 square feet. Because the living spaces here are incredibly small so people hang out here, which is why Portsmouth Square is known as the living room of Chinatown.